Big Sis to Be!

So, it's official! I went to the doctor today and Camden will be a big sister by the first week in May. We are super excited! The baby seems to be doing great. It was such a relief to see that sweet little heartbeat today. I have been feeling pretty 'icky' for the past several weeks, which I will use as my excuse for my blogging hiatus. :) It has also gotten increasingly harder to snap pics of Camden since she is such a 'big girl' now and she wants to be the one holding the camera. But, I promise to do better in the next few weeks.

Praise God for such a good report at the OB today. Please keep the new baby spires in your prayers as we move through the rest of this first trimester (and ofcourse, after that, too!).

Camden and Bella play so well together, or atleast Camden thinks so:

Wilson County Fair....a first for daddy and camden!

This past weekend we went to the Wilson County Fair, which is about 30 minutes or so from Nashville. A few friends had told us about it and then we heard it on the radio, so decided it must be worth the drive.
Saturday, we loaded up Camden after her morning nap and headed for the adventure. We definitely had a fun filled day! Shaefer and I both said, as we were walking through the endless parking lot to find our car, how much fun we had and that we both felt like 'little kids in a candy store' all day.
Here are a few pics from our day: (i figured out....about half way through uploading, how to make the pics larger, so forgive me for the smaller ones, going forward, all will be big...even more of camden to see! :)

we heard lots about the 'famous' banana derby before we went....little monkeys racing on top of dogs....

hard to see, bc we were kind of far back due to the crowds, but in the back left of the pic are the 2 monkeys on their dogs racing...

cheering them on
and the winner is....showing off

dreaming about when she will be tall enough to ride!!....which, by the way, we went to the dr for her 15 month check up on Friday....she is doing great! And...she is in the 50th percentile for height!!!! WOW!! (in the 3rd for her weight, but atleast she's back on the chart!:)

first trip to the petting zoo...she's not so sure about things




this llama enjoyed the carrots shaefer fed her so much, that she decided to spit them at us!camden did not like the spitting!

mommy comforted her and she became animal friendly again

second trip to the petting zoo....a friend joined us this time (this is jenny and her little girl, riley. we met them at one of the churches we tried and have been spending some time together in the past few weeks letting the girls play..and the mommy's talk. :)

cheering the pigs on...yes, there was pig racing, too!

LUNCH!

camden enjoyed some of daddy's gyro and lots of mommy's chicken on a stick

first ever fair game...for daddy and camden!she didn't really win, but she's just so cute they gave her a prize anyway! she loved it!

Camden's New Trick.....

See video below for camden's new trick....there's something for everyone! :)

Here are just some random pics from this week....

daddy's and camden's favorite snack after dinner!

it's just more fun to play INSIDE the toy box

loving some bella kisses

ANYTHING can be a toy! Who needs Toys R Us?!

she went and got the dishtowel herself, and then played with it all morning! from a headwrap to a scarf, she had much fun and i had many laughs!

Jamaica 'Mon'

Last weekend was a whirlwind, but lots of fun. We went to Jamaica for Harrison and Laura (Shaefer's brother) wedding. Camden did pretty good on the flights and during the trip...she just lived by the philosophy of 'why sleep while you're on vacation!?' So, thanks to Nana and Bonnie, Shaefer and I did get one night of rest while just a few rooms down, Camden got Nana and Bonnie up around 3am for an early morning conversation. So sorry Shaefer and I missed out! (smiles)

Anyway, we stayed at a place called Tryall Club, which was amazing! Thanks to all the parents for the meals and to the Hinson's for such a great place to stay. The rooms/villas were amazing....most were complete with your own chef, golf cart, amazing balcony or terrace, and private pool. Absolutely amazing...i only wish i took more pictures. The only ones I snapped the whole weekend were during Camden's first experience in the ocean. As you will see below, the water was fine with her, but keep her out of the sand! It was kind of funny how upset she got with the sand.....especially since it cannot be because she doesn't like getting dirty......you should see her during mealtimes!

Laura looked absolutely beautiful and wore the most georgous dress....for those of you with Facebook, there are some links on our page from other friend's pages with some pics. Shaefer was blessed to be able to 'officiate' the ceremony. I was a bridesmaid, and Camden did great as a flower girl, especially at rehearsal.....for the wedding, she made it down the 2 sets of stairs (which we didn't practice at rehearsal), but then tripped over her adorable bloomer pants and didn't make it all the way down to us for the actual ceremony. Needless to say, i think she still had a blast. She seems to love attention, especially when she knows everyone is looking at her. She becomes all smiles!

I will post pics from the actual wedding if I can once Laura gets hers back from the photographer, but for now, here are the only pics I took the entire weekend:

auntie em took camden in the ocean for her very first time....she seemed to like it

not so happy in the sand

Part 3: Newsome Mill

When Camden woke up from her afternoon nap, we packed a picnic and headed out for a hike, with Bella in tow as well. But, when we got in the car, and realized the temp outside was still very hot, and knew Camden nor Bella would much enjoy the heat, we decided to cancel the hike and just go to a place called Newsome Mill and check out the river, then have our picnic there. I can definitely say this is not a 'park' that Camden and I would ever go to alone....it seemed pretty sketchy (see pictures to follow). We did have fun family time and learned that Camden may just have a passion for the river (see video).

notice how much she is leaning back on shaefer...she was not too sure about the river at first....

...getting braver.....(AND, notice the graffiti on the cement!)

there's no stopping her!! Shaefer assured me that leather sandals are MEANT to get wet. I had to disagree since these were White Stride Rite leather sandals!

can you tell she wants to go back to the water?

note the chains on the picnic table....i'm guessing a past problem with theft!

the picnic

between the river water and her messy eating habits, the shirt had to come off before the ride home

Part 2: Bounce U

Saturday morning we went to Bounce U. If you've seen those big inflatable slides, fun houses, ball filled bounceys, etc., then just imagine 2 huge rooms filled with about 6 different 'bounceys' each. Vanderbilt has a really great 'spouses club' (called VHA-Vanderbilt Housestaff Alliance) for the resident's wives/husbands and they have hosted several 'welcome' events since intern year has began. Most of the events are free and they try to host atleast one each month. Some months it is for the entire family and other times it is just for the couples. Anyway, August's event was for the entire family and I think all 3 of us really enjoyed ourselves. We 'bounced' for just over an hour and then had lunch. I think Camden is smiling in almost every picture!

these first few pics are when all 3 of us were in the 'jumpy' bouncy...this was our first 'bouncy' and i knew then that Camden loved this place.

daddy is doing the jumping here and camden is just enjoying the ride!
....not so sure if she liked the slide as much as we did